By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
The New Hope Trojans football team is consistent, albeit for a list of frustrating reasons.
The Trojans’ season-long theme has been about unforced errors, which, as an inexperienced team in a tough division, they could not afford. Finding a way to play four quarters without untimely errors has been a season-long grind for coach Kris Pickle and his staff.
It was more of the same for the Trojans Friday night, right from the opening kickoff in a 46-12 loss to Oxford High.
The Trojans were okie-doked by Oxford with an on-sides kick on back-to-back drives and fell into a 13-0 hole after just three minutes of play. New Hope ended the game with four turnovers, including three fumbles. Oxford scored all of its points in the first half.
“It ain’t got nothing to do with focus or anything like that,” Pickle said. “It’s a matter of execution. We knew they were gonna do [the onside kicks] … heck, we were gonna do it to them if we got the ball first. We practice it every single day.
“I told them at half time that until we start executing ourselves and taking care of ourselves … it doesn’t matter what you draw up on the board, what speech you give, it comes down to execution, and we have to do what we’ve been taught.”
New Hope (1-7, 0-4, Class 5A Region 1) staved off the blowout, at least momentarily, after capping a 10-play, 69-yard drive with a 6-yard scoring run by quarterback Thomas Stevens to cut the lead to 14, 20-6. The drive came after Stevens was nailed on a blitz and fumbled the ball, a play that set up a one-play scoring drive for Oxford (6-2, 4-0 Class 5A Region 1). New Hope then recovered an on-sides kick, but gave the ball back to Oxford three plays later when Andre Erby, who’d caught an 11-yard pass to move the sticks to the Oxford 31, fumbled.
While the New Hope defense forced a stop on the ensuing drive, New Hope’s offense wasted a 10-play drive to make it a one-score game, as Erby had a pair of drops. Oxford penalties had resulted in 20 free yards on the drive. The Chargers got the ball back and scored on two plays.
“Going in, we thought we’d be able to move the ball,” Pickle said. “We knew, defensively, we’d have a hard time – they’re a talented team. That said, it’s a 20-6 ball game, we recover the onsides kick, then we have some miscues. That just comes to stuff we have to take some ownership and pride in getting some of this stuff fixed.”
Stevens said the Trojans work on cleaning up miscues, like drops and mental breakdowns in practice each week, and the team, for the most part, fixes its mistakes. But he said he’s unsure of how it doesn’t carry over into each game.
“We’ll get a good play, then we’ll have a drop or a fumble,” said Stevens, who went 13 of 27 for 81 yards and two scores. “It slows us down, and it’s hard to get in a rhythm and get going.
“Our game plan was to get them underneath and take our shots later in the game. We’d go underneath, get second and short, then we’d take our shots. But we’d miss a pass, get pressured, then get a long third down. I don’t know.”
Pickle challenged his team to better prepare for game day.
“I think we’re getting better because we’re moving the ball well on offense,” Pickle said. “We just shoot ourselves in the foot. Some of that has to do with a good football team we’re playing that creates some of those mistakes. But some of that stuff, the unforced errors we have in a game, is what’s holding us back in games. We dropped seven passes tonight, we fumbled the ball, the kick returns — those things can’t happen in a game.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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